Perhaps the Miami Hurricanes Are A Legit Contender For ACC Championship

They won their seventh consecutive game on Sunday, waxing the floor with Florida State in a 71-47 win, and they seem to be poised to make a run for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.

What is impressive about the win isn’t that the Hurricanes beat the Seminoles. It’s that they avoided a letdown after the win over Duke earlier in the week.

“The Duke game was the best all year as far as atmosphere, but this was a big-time game for us,” Miami star Reggie Johnson said in a post-game press conference. “The fans really kept us going, and we’re proud of that.”

The Hurricanes got after it big time on defense, which is what a team hoping to contend for a conference title needs to do. Miami forced Florida State to shoot a miserable 31 percent from the field.

The final stat isn’t a surprise. Miami hasn’t let an opponent shoot better than 50 percent all season. The Hurricanes also showed tremendous teamwork, dishing out 19 assists.

“We played very well,” Miami head coach Jim Larranaga said in a post-game press conference. “We had only three guys in double figures, but we had 19 assists. That’s good sharing of the ball.”

As well as Miami has played, it still has a long way go. It’s a long season and anything can happen down the stretch. At least for now, though, Miami seems to have itself ready for the long road ahead.

“We feel good man,” Johnson said in a post-game press conference. “The team is playing at a high level right now. We’ve got to enjoy this, but we’ve got to stay focused.”

Brian Lester is a college basketball writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @BLester1993.